Many people require frequent, if not daily gum massage due to disease or other causes. This requires many hours of hand massaging with a massager having a rubber tip. Also, such a patient will need to apply a chemical mixture to the gums and to pack paste into the subgingival and interproximal areas of the teeth, for the purpose of microbiological control of gingivitis or periodontal disease.
The use of a hand stimulator to achieve the aforementioned result is extremely cumbersome because of problems relating to manual dexterity. Also, the length of time needed to apply the chemical substance, which is typically fifteen to forty minutes a day, is discouraging to the patient. Because of this problem, many patients fail to continue their home care treatment, and those who do continue are not as dedicated, thus having less than optimum results. Consequently, there is a need for a better way to massage and apply a chemical mixture to the gums.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,828 to Lustig et al attempts to solve the aforementioned problem, but this device has many moving parts and several disadvantages. It is a direct drive apparatus that is driven with gears and has no shock absorbing features except for resiliency of the rubber tip thereon. If the patient applies too much pressure, it could cause damage to the gum tissue. When something painful such as gum tissue damage occurs, patients often stop the treatment and thereby risk the loss of their teeth at a later date because of the unhealthy gum tissue problem. Accordingly, there is a need for an electric periodontal massager for overcoming the aforementioned problems with the prior art.